On today's Sydney Morning Herald website, there's a video clip of a thug torturing a 12-year-old boy. Despite the brutality, I would advise everybody to watch it, and then read the accompanying Associated Press report, Video of Palestinian woman [sic], Israel soldier scuffling goes viral.
The level of misrepresentation in the AP report can only be described as criminal.
Nowhere does it mention the MEGA-FACT that the site of the 'scuffle', the Israeli-OCCUPIED West Bank, is OCCUPIED territory - just as OCCUPIED as any territory OCCUPIED by Nazi troops in OCCUPIED Europe during World War 2.
And to call the incident a 'scuffle' is a total obscenity: A heavily-armed, masked, uniformed Israeli thug, choking and slamming an injured 12-year old child (with one arm in a plaster cast) against a boulder, is a 'scuffle'?
Or a 'skirmish', as the incident is elsewhere described?
The denial of reality evident in the SMH/AP report on this outrage is itself an outrage, and shames everyone responsible for it, from its drafting through to its publishing.
Monday, August 31, 2015
Sunday, August 30, 2015
A Leigh Sales Pitch for Israel 2
Leigh Sales: Israel is a country that a lot of people around the world who've never been to Israel have an opinion about.
And your implication is what exactly? Let me guess:
That...
despite countless excellent first-hand reports on Palestine/Israel available in newspapers and on the internet...
despite numerous fine docos (none of which the ABC ever screens)...
and despite a constant stream of scholarly and reputable studies (none of which, it seems, Leigh Sales, with her degree in international studies and blog called well-readhead, has ever read)...
... we don't know what we're talking about unless we've been there?
Seriously?
Gideon Raff: Oh, yeah.
Sales: Do you think that people understand the reality of life in Israel very much?
Meaning?
Let me guess: Palestinian terrorists under every bed? Palestinian rockets falling like rain? Palestinian...
FFS, at the risk of repeating myself to the point of tedium, every square inch of 'Israel' from the River to the Sea is stolen Palestinian land.
Raff: Absolutely not. I think first of all, there's a lot of judgment about Israel. Some of it is right and some of it isn't. I think in order to understand Israel you should visit Israel.
Oh, yeah, especially if you're a politician or a journalist. Just call the bloke from Rambam Tours Inc.
Even just to see the sheer size of the place. I think because it's... on everybody's headline all the time, people think that it's a huge country, but the truth is that it's a very small country and we live together, Arabs and Jews and secular Jews and Orthodox and Ethiopians and Russians and it's such a mix of tribes.
Oh yeah, just one big, happy family really.
Raff's got his Zionist talking point down pat. Passing off the ethnocratic Jewish monoculture as an Australian-style multiculture works like a charm with people like Sales.
Does the well-readhead one (LOL) even know that - contra Raff's spin about Jews and "Arabs" living "together" - the majority of the "Arabs" were sent packing in 1948 & 1967, and that the rest are either under direct jackboot occupation or reduced to third class citizenship in an apartheid state?
And on one hand such an amazing democracy, with freedom of speech expected more than even in the United States.
Oh, yeah, what an "amazing democracy"... as long as Israeli Jews are in the majority - which was precisely the point of the Great Ethnic Cleansing of 1948!
And on the other hand, there's stuff that our government does that you can be critical of, of course. But I think it's probably [one of] the least understood places on Earth.
Oh, yeah, if only people really understood us...
The problem is, Gideon, they DO, only too well.
Well, maybe not people like Leigh Sales.
Sales: Gideon Raff, very interesting to have you on the program. Thank you very much. (Oh, dear, did I really write a book in 2009 (On Doubt) advocating the virtues of a doubtful mind?)
Raff: Thank you very much. (And thanks for yet another softball interview. This country's a dream run for guys like me.)
And your implication is what exactly? Let me guess:
That...
despite countless excellent first-hand reports on Palestine/Israel available in newspapers and on the internet...
despite numerous fine docos (none of which the ABC ever screens)...
and despite a constant stream of scholarly and reputable studies (none of which, it seems, Leigh Sales, with her degree in international studies and blog called well-readhead, has ever read)...
... we don't know what we're talking about unless we've been there?
Seriously?
Gideon Raff: Oh, yeah.
Sales: Do you think that people understand the reality of life in Israel very much?
Meaning?
Let me guess: Palestinian terrorists under every bed? Palestinian rockets falling like rain? Palestinian...
FFS, at the risk of repeating myself to the point of tedium, every square inch of 'Israel' from the River to the Sea is stolen Palestinian land.
Raff: Absolutely not. I think first of all, there's a lot of judgment about Israel. Some of it is right and some of it isn't. I think in order to understand Israel you should visit Israel.
Oh, yeah, especially if you're a politician or a journalist. Just call the bloke from Rambam Tours Inc.
Even just to see the sheer size of the place. I think because it's... on everybody's headline all the time, people think that it's a huge country, but the truth is that it's a very small country and we live together, Arabs and Jews and secular Jews and Orthodox and Ethiopians and Russians and it's such a mix of tribes.
Oh yeah, just one big, happy family really.
Raff's got his Zionist talking point down pat. Passing off the ethnocratic Jewish monoculture as an Australian-style multiculture works like a charm with people like Sales.
Does the well-readhead one (LOL) even know that - contra Raff's spin about Jews and "Arabs" living "together" - the majority of the "Arabs" were sent packing in 1948 & 1967, and that the rest are either under direct jackboot occupation or reduced to third class citizenship in an apartheid state?
And on one hand such an amazing democracy, with freedom of speech expected more than even in the United States.
Oh, yeah, what an "amazing democracy"... as long as Israeli Jews are in the majority - which was precisely the point of the Great Ethnic Cleansing of 1948!
And on the other hand, there's stuff that our government does that you can be critical of, of course. But I think it's probably [one of] the least understood places on Earth.
Oh, yeah, if only people really understood us...
The problem is, Gideon, they DO, only too well.
Well, maybe not people like Leigh Sales.
Sales: Gideon Raff, very interesting to have you on the program. Thank you very much. (Oh, dear, did I really write a book in 2009 (On Doubt) advocating the virtues of a doubtful mind?)
Raff: Thank you very much. (And thanks for yet another softball interview. This country's a dream run for guys like me.)
Saturday, August 29, 2015
A Leigh Sales Pitch for Israel 1
On Thursday night, the 7.30 Report's Leigh Sales interviewed Gideon Raff, perpetrator of the Israeli television series, Prisoners of War (screened on SBS in 2013).*
What can I say? It was basically a Sales pitch - for Israel.
I'm going to devote two posts to it. For the first, I merely wish to vent on the following gobsmacker by Raff, which, need I say, went completely unremarked by Sales:
"I found that the term prisoners of war actually applies to all of [the Israeli prisoner's family], and maybe even to all of us as a country in Israel."
Oh, FFS... and your jailers are?
So fanatical Israeli colons steal someone else's land, destroy their homes, drive most of them out into permanent exile, and occupy, murder, imprison and torture the rest on a daily basis... and Raff's telling us it's his mob who are doing it tough...?!
Just imagine someone out there trying to get the ABC or SBS to screen a television series on imprisoned Palestinians. (Yes, I know it's a tautology.):
Palestinians, you say? We'd love too, but...
Well, let's say that somewhere out there, in some parallel world, on some parallel ABC or SBS, something called Palestinian Prisoners of Israeli Terrorism & Apartheid - there are around 6,000 at the moment - actually gets a run, one of its prisoners could perhaps be someone like... Rasmea Odeh.**
Never heard of her?
OK, here's a new poem about her by the greatest activist singer-songwriter of our time, David Rovics.*** Says it all really:
Rasmea was born in Palestine a year before she had to flee
Her family left their home at gunpoint - since then she's been a refugee
She lived a hard life in the camps, her dad had to move away
Try to support his family from way out in Michigan, USA
When Rasmea was first arrested, not much older than a kid
There had been a bombing, and the next thing the authorities did
Was round up the whole neighborhood - 500 women, children and men
They tortured Rasmea - they only stopped when
They extracted their confession - she did what she had to do
Having no idea when her ordeal would be through
After 10 years in a dungeon, in the land of stolen fates
She was sent to Jordan, from where she moved to the United States
Rasmea made a life here helping refugees like her
Adapting to their new lives and the people they once were
Until her home was raided because she once checked the wrong box
For not mentioning the confession produced by the electro-shocks
Again Rasmea was arrested - once again stripped of citizenship
Some drink deeply of their freedom - some only get a little sip
The fact that she was tortured was not considered of import
Only Israeli military evidence was recognized by the American court
Now they say they will deport her from the city on the lake
They say that 20 years ago she made a technical mistake
They say Rasmea is a terrorist, but I'd say it would seem
Rasmea Odeh is the victim of a terrorist regime
Coming up: A Leigh Sales Pitch for Israel 2
[*See my 21/1/13 post 'Prisoners of War': Those Bloody Arabs Again!;**Visit justice4rasmea.org & the Free Rasmea Now FB page; ***See my 20/6/12 post Holy Land 5.]
What can I say? It was basically a Sales pitch - for Israel.
I'm going to devote two posts to it. For the first, I merely wish to vent on the following gobsmacker by Raff, which, need I say, went completely unremarked by Sales:
"I found that the term prisoners of war actually applies to all of [the Israeli prisoner's family], and maybe even to all of us as a country in Israel."
Oh, FFS... and your jailers are?
So fanatical Israeli colons steal someone else's land, destroy their homes, drive most of them out into permanent exile, and occupy, murder, imprison and torture the rest on a daily basis... and Raff's telling us it's his mob who are doing it tough...?!
Just imagine someone out there trying to get the ABC or SBS to screen a television series on imprisoned Palestinians. (Yes, I know it's a tautology.):
Palestinians, you say? We'd love too, but...
Well, let's say that somewhere out there, in some parallel world, on some parallel ABC or SBS, something called Palestinian Prisoners of Israeli Terrorism & Apartheid - there are around 6,000 at the moment - actually gets a run, one of its prisoners could perhaps be someone like... Rasmea Odeh.**
Never heard of her?
OK, here's a new poem about her by the greatest activist singer-songwriter of our time, David Rovics.*** Says it all really:
Rasmea was born in Palestine a year before she had to flee
Her family left their home at gunpoint - since then she's been a refugee
She lived a hard life in the camps, her dad had to move away
Try to support his family from way out in Michigan, USA
When Rasmea was first arrested, not much older than a kid
There had been a bombing, and the next thing the authorities did
Was round up the whole neighborhood - 500 women, children and men
They tortured Rasmea - they only stopped when
They extracted their confession - she did what she had to do
Having no idea when her ordeal would be through
After 10 years in a dungeon, in the land of stolen fates
She was sent to Jordan, from where she moved to the United States
Rasmea made a life here helping refugees like her
Adapting to their new lives and the people they once were
Until her home was raided because she once checked the wrong box
For not mentioning the confession produced by the electro-shocks
Again Rasmea was arrested - once again stripped of citizenship
Some drink deeply of their freedom - some only get a little sip
The fact that she was tortured was not considered of import
Only Israeli military evidence was recognized by the American court
Now they say they will deport her from the city on the lake
They say that 20 years ago she made a technical mistake
They say Rasmea is a terrorist, but I'd say it would seem
Rasmea Odeh is the victim of a terrorist regime
Coming up: A Leigh Sales Pitch for Israel 2
[*See my 21/1/13 post 'Prisoners of War': Those Bloody Arabs Again!;**Visit justice4rasmea.org & the Free Rasmea Now FB page; ***See my 20/6/12 post Holy Land 5.]
Friday, August 28, 2015
Christian Zionism in PNG
If you thought idol-smashing zombies were confined to ISIS-controlled Iraq and Syria, think again.
They're on Australia's doorstep:
"Today (26/8) is Repentance Day in Papua New Guinea, when highlights include the public burning of traditional carvings used in what the organisers call 'idol worship and witchcraft'. The day will also, bizarrely, feature a national collection of money as an 'Aliyah' offering - to promote the migration of Jewish people to Israel, which some American evangelical Christians view as a prerequisite for the second coming of Christ. The day is a public holiday, marked by 'prayer ceremonies' across the country.
"The president and vice-president of the PNG Council of Churches... warned that the cash collection aroused concern. They said the country's mainstream churches had not been consulted about the introduction, four years ago, of Repentance Day as a 'covenant' originally signed by then prime minister Michael Somare, nor about today's program... Parliamentary Speaker Theodore Zurenuoc* was accused of Taliban-style cultural terrorism when in 2013 he launched a 'cleansing exercise' to destroy the building's totem poles which he viewed as demonic, and which were ordered to be chopped up and burned." (PNG to torch its 'demonic' carvings, Rowan Callick, The Australian, 26/8/15)
[*"The Papua New Guinea Trade Union Congress, PNGTUC, has called on the police to arrest the Speaker of Parliament Theo Zurenuoc for destroying public property. The Post-Courier paper says the appeal comes on the back of more condemnation of the cleansing exercise which the Speaker began last week to remove ungodly images and idols from the House. A lintel containing 19 ancestral masks from the provinces was removed and chopped up in the first wave of the exercise. A four-tonne pole which contained carving traditions from around the country was next on the list until Prime Minister Peter O'Neill personally intervened... and stopped the work. PNGTUC general secretary, John Paska, praised the prime minister but said Mr Zurenuoc's actions were criminal in nature and he should be arrested. He also says the Community Development Minister Loujaya Kouza, who told the Post-Courier that an Israel-based Messianic group advised her to push for the removal of the intricate carvings, should be stripped of her portfolio." (PNG union want Zurenuoc arrested for destroying public property, radionz.co.nz, 17/12/13)]
Worth a read: Purging Parliament: A New Christian Politics in PNG? (ANU SSGM Discussion Paper 2014/1)
Here's an extract from an essay in that publication, The rise of Christian fundamentalism & the link to Israel (pp 8-9):
"At the core of Christian Zionism is the belief that the return of the Jews to their Holy Land and the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 fulfils biblical prophecies and foreshadows the second coming of Christ.The State of Israel has given official encouragement to Christian Zionism and Israeli religious leaders have fostered the sorts of linkages which took Loujaya Kouza and others to Israel in 2013. State-to-state linkages between Papua New Guinea and Israel have also been strengthened in recent years and in 2012 Papua New Guinea was one of 41 countries that abstained from the UN General Assembly vote on according Palestine non-member observer status in the United Nations (Solomon Islands, where Christian Zionism is also growing, was among the 138 voting in favour). Prime Minister O'Neill led a delegation to Israel in October 2013 where he visited religious sites, signed a joint Declaration of Co-operation (specific areas of prospective Israeli assistance include defence, security and intelligence capability, agriculture, and information technology and communications) and an agreement reciprocally waiving visa requirements, and proposed to establish a Papua New Guinea embassy in Israel. The O'Neill Government has since approved a joint venture partnership with an Israeli group to develop the agro-industry... Although there is not necessarily wrong with these ties to Israel, it may be that the spread of Christian Zionism has implications for Papua New Guinea's foreign policy."
One to watch.
They're on Australia's doorstep:
"Today (26/8) is Repentance Day in Papua New Guinea, when highlights include the public burning of traditional carvings used in what the organisers call 'idol worship and witchcraft'. The day will also, bizarrely, feature a national collection of money as an 'Aliyah' offering - to promote the migration of Jewish people to Israel, which some American evangelical Christians view as a prerequisite for the second coming of Christ. The day is a public holiday, marked by 'prayer ceremonies' across the country.
"The president and vice-president of the PNG Council of Churches... warned that the cash collection aroused concern. They said the country's mainstream churches had not been consulted about the introduction, four years ago, of Repentance Day as a 'covenant' originally signed by then prime minister Michael Somare, nor about today's program... Parliamentary Speaker Theodore Zurenuoc* was accused of Taliban-style cultural terrorism when in 2013 he launched a 'cleansing exercise' to destroy the building's totem poles which he viewed as demonic, and which were ordered to be chopped up and burned." (PNG to torch its 'demonic' carvings, Rowan Callick, The Australian, 26/8/15)
[*"The Papua New Guinea Trade Union Congress, PNGTUC, has called on the police to arrest the Speaker of Parliament Theo Zurenuoc for destroying public property. The Post-Courier paper says the appeal comes on the back of more condemnation of the cleansing exercise which the Speaker began last week to remove ungodly images and idols from the House. A lintel containing 19 ancestral masks from the provinces was removed and chopped up in the first wave of the exercise. A four-tonne pole which contained carving traditions from around the country was next on the list until Prime Minister Peter O'Neill personally intervened... and stopped the work. PNGTUC general secretary, John Paska, praised the prime minister but said Mr Zurenuoc's actions were criminal in nature and he should be arrested. He also says the Community Development Minister Loujaya Kouza, who told the Post-Courier that an Israel-based Messianic group advised her to push for the removal of the intricate carvings, should be stripped of her portfolio." (PNG union want Zurenuoc arrested for destroying public property, radionz.co.nz, 17/12/13)]
Worth a read: Purging Parliament: A New Christian Politics in PNG? (ANU SSGM Discussion Paper 2014/1)
Here's an extract from an essay in that publication, The rise of Christian fundamentalism & the link to Israel (pp 8-9):
"At the core of Christian Zionism is the belief that the return of the Jews to their Holy Land and the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 fulfils biblical prophecies and foreshadows the second coming of Christ.The State of Israel has given official encouragement to Christian Zionism and Israeli religious leaders have fostered the sorts of linkages which took Loujaya Kouza and others to Israel in 2013. State-to-state linkages between Papua New Guinea and Israel have also been strengthened in recent years and in 2012 Papua New Guinea was one of 41 countries that abstained from the UN General Assembly vote on according Palestine non-member observer status in the United Nations (Solomon Islands, where Christian Zionism is also growing, was among the 138 voting in favour). Prime Minister O'Neill led a delegation to Israel in October 2013 where he visited religious sites, signed a joint Declaration of Co-operation (specific areas of prospective Israeli assistance include defence, security and intelligence capability, agriculture, and information technology and communications) and an agreement reciprocally waiving visa requirements, and proposed to establish a Papua New Guinea embassy in Israel. The O'Neill Government has since approved a joint venture partnership with an Israeli group to develop the agro-industry... Although there is not necessarily wrong with these ties to Israel, it may be that the spread of Christian Zionism has implications for Papua New Guinea's foreign policy."
One to watch.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Think of Bill Shorten & Weep
The following lengthy 'comment', taken from the thread which follows Guardian journalist Owen Jones' article Stand by for more attacks on Corbyn's principled foreign policy stance (21/8/15), is framed as an Open Letter to Jeremy Corbyn.
Corbyn, of course, is the frontrunner in the contest for leadership of the UK Labour Party, and a harbinger of hope for a more progressive United Kingdom.
When you read it, think of 'our' Bill Shorten and weep:
"I grew up in a family that was politically active and aware. I watched the news nightly with my folks. We debated politics and religion and all manner of fascinating subjects. I remember, at the tender age of 16, being filled with envy for those who were old enough to vote and be involved in the political process. I watched the first federal election in which I understood the issues and the arguments for and against, champing at the bit to be able to play a part and cast my vote at the ballot box.
"By the time the next federal election came around I was already so disillusioned with politicians and their broken promises that I had little or no interest any more. What I witnessed in the intervening years was heart-breaking and soul-destroying. I was so young, and yet so cynical. Every vote I have cast since then has been well-informed, knowing all the issues, voting for who would be most likely to keep the promises they made to do all the things the country needs. Every time, I listlessly pushed my vote into the ballot box knowing it would make no difference. But, aside from protest, it was the only power I had. Every time, I was disappointed by charlatans who only seemed to want to disenfranchise the working class and maintain the status quo for the wealthy, the aristocracy and most importantly, the multinational corporations.
"I marched against the war in Iraq with millions of others all over the UK. It was an amazing day, filled with hope and solidarity, and the sense that we could, with this much opposition, halt the plans of this dastardly government to lead us into an illegal and immoral war. And then we were ignored! The government ignored the people it was meant to represent. It was the final nail in the coffin of my belief in democracy as a functional political system.
"This morning I awoke to read that Jeremy Corbyn, should he become Labour leader, is going to apologise on behalf of the Labour Party for the Iraq war! I felt a sudden, massive injection of hope for the future, and it is almost exhilirating! It is a feeling that has been building ever since I first heard his name. I can hear a man talking about caring for each other, building a Britain that looks after its sick, its disabled and its destitute, and might even try Tony Blair for war crimes! I want to jump in ecstasy and blissfully skip down the street in celebration. I can't believe I've got a whole day of work to do before I can celebrate having my love of politics rekindled and my energy for the fight reinvigorated. I've joined the Labour Party to support Jeremy Corbyn because his vision of the future is the one I want and I actually believe he is not just telling me what he thinks I want to hear! I actually believe he holds in his heart empathy and compassion, and that he will KEEP HIS PROMISES should he win power.
"But now I'm witnessing forces within the Labour Party trying to rig the election against Jeremy Corbyn. It's bad enough that the Labor Party are excluding members from voting, but now they're intending to annul votes AFTER they've been cast. So my cynicism of the democratic process as a whole remains intact. Thanks, Labour. But at least I can hear someone rallying the troops to fight the good fight.
"I didn't think I'd ever feel this way about politics again. Thank you, Jeremy Corbyn, and all who are supporting him, for resurrecting my love of politics and giving me hope again! Thank you so VERY, VERY MUCH!
Yours faithfully
JJ
Corbyn, of course, is the frontrunner in the contest for leadership of the UK Labour Party, and a harbinger of hope for a more progressive United Kingdom.
When you read it, think of 'our' Bill Shorten and weep:
"I grew up in a family that was politically active and aware. I watched the news nightly with my folks. We debated politics and religion and all manner of fascinating subjects. I remember, at the tender age of 16, being filled with envy for those who were old enough to vote and be involved in the political process. I watched the first federal election in which I understood the issues and the arguments for and against, champing at the bit to be able to play a part and cast my vote at the ballot box.
"By the time the next federal election came around I was already so disillusioned with politicians and their broken promises that I had little or no interest any more. What I witnessed in the intervening years was heart-breaking and soul-destroying. I was so young, and yet so cynical. Every vote I have cast since then has been well-informed, knowing all the issues, voting for who would be most likely to keep the promises they made to do all the things the country needs. Every time, I listlessly pushed my vote into the ballot box knowing it would make no difference. But, aside from protest, it was the only power I had. Every time, I was disappointed by charlatans who only seemed to want to disenfranchise the working class and maintain the status quo for the wealthy, the aristocracy and most importantly, the multinational corporations.
"I marched against the war in Iraq with millions of others all over the UK. It was an amazing day, filled with hope and solidarity, and the sense that we could, with this much opposition, halt the plans of this dastardly government to lead us into an illegal and immoral war. And then we were ignored! The government ignored the people it was meant to represent. It was the final nail in the coffin of my belief in democracy as a functional political system.
"This morning I awoke to read that Jeremy Corbyn, should he become Labour leader, is going to apologise on behalf of the Labour Party for the Iraq war! I felt a sudden, massive injection of hope for the future, and it is almost exhilirating! It is a feeling that has been building ever since I first heard his name. I can hear a man talking about caring for each other, building a Britain that looks after its sick, its disabled and its destitute, and might even try Tony Blair for war crimes! I want to jump in ecstasy and blissfully skip down the street in celebration. I can't believe I've got a whole day of work to do before I can celebrate having my love of politics rekindled and my energy for the fight reinvigorated. I've joined the Labour Party to support Jeremy Corbyn because his vision of the future is the one I want and I actually believe he is not just telling me what he thinks I want to hear! I actually believe he holds in his heart empathy and compassion, and that he will KEEP HIS PROMISES should he win power.
"But now I'm witnessing forces within the Labour Party trying to rig the election against Jeremy Corbyn. It's bad enough that the Labor Party are excluding members from voting, but now they're intending to annul votes AFTER they've been cast. So my cynicism of the democratic process as a whole remains intact. Thanks, Labour. But at least I can hear someone rallying the troops to fight the good fight.
"I didn't think I'd ever feel this way about politics again. Thank you, Jeremy Corbyn, and all who are supporting him, for resurrecting my love of politics and giving me hope again! Thank you so VERY, VERY MUCH!
Yours faithfully
JJ
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Malcolm Turnbull in a Nutshell
All you need to know about the Liberal Party's Great White Hope, Malcolm Turnbull:
"We see ourselves as having shared values with Israel. We see Israel as being in the first trench... in the first line of battle against extremists and terrorism. We are definitely on the same side. We are determined to provide all the support we can to ensure that Israel remains a Jewish State within secure borders." (Malcolm Turnbull speaking at the Zionist Federation of Australia's Plenary Conference on August 16, ZFA conversation, jwire.com.au, 17/8/15)
"We see ourselves as having shared values with Israel. We see Israel as being in the first trench... in the first line of battle against extremists and terrorism. We are definitely on the same side. We are determined to provide all the support we can to ensure that Israel remains a Jewish State within secure borders." (Malcolm Turnbull speaking at the Zionist Federation of Australia's Plenary Conference on August 16, ZFA conversation, jwire.com.au, 17/8/15)
Monday, August 24, 2015
Tweet of the Day
"Imagine Abbott will announce we're bombing Syria in good time for the Canning khaki bye-election."* - Mike Carlton
*19/9
*19/9
Remembering Iraq
This month is the 25th anniversary of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the US's devastating Operation Desert Storm. Iraq was then subjected to crippling UN sanctions for 13 years, before American forces delivered the coup de grace in 2003.
The rest, as they say, is history.
To mark the occasion, Radio National's Fran Kelly interviewed Anas Altikriti of the Cordoba Foundation on 7/8/15. When invited by her to compare the Iraq of today with that of 25 years ago, Altikriti answered:
"Iraq 25 years ago [was] ruled by a brutal, miserable dictator and a regime which was inhumane, but in comparison with what the Iraqi people have today, they look back on those days with dewy eyes and fondness to be perfectly honest."
Lest we forget.
The rest, as they say, is history.
To mark the occasion, Radio National's Fran Kelly interviewed Anas Altikriti of the Cordoba Foundation on 7/8/15. When invited by her to compare the Iraq of today with that of 25 years ago, Altikriti answered:
"Iraq 25 years ago [was] ruled by a brutal, miserable dictator and a regime which was inhumane, but in comparison with what the Iraqi people have today, they look back on those days with dewy eyes and fondness to be perfectly honest."
Lest we forget.
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Galloway: Jews Don't Have to Be on the Side of Apartheid
Place: Oxford Union
Time: 14/10/13
Zionist Smartypants (referring to an earlier declaration by Galloway that he doesn't debate Israelis):
If I said in a debate that I would not debate with a Pakistani, I would rightly be called a racist. My question for you is: Are you a racist? (Vigorous applause)
George Galloway:
Why are you applauding that? What kind of people would applaud that? Am I a racist? You've sat through the last hour and a half of me speaking and you're applauding someone asking me if I'm a racist? What kind of people are you? Or do you just applaud anything? Would you just applaud anything?
I'll let you in on something you don't know. I'm one of the few people on the Left in Britain who travelled the length and breadth of South Africa as an underground agent of the ANC led by Nelson Mandela, then in Pollsmoor Prison in Capetown. Therefore, the subject of apartheid is particularly important to me. The question of racism is particularly important to me and, in parenthesis, let me tell you this: throughout the entirety of my time underground in South Africa under apartheid, every house I slept in, every dinner I ate, every car I drove in was provided by Jewish activists of the ANC.
So Jews don't have to be on the side of apartheid (Applause), they don't have to be on the side of racism (Vigorous applause). Jewish heroes - amongst my blood brotherhood, like Denis Goldberg, who served 27 years on Robben Island, in Pollsmoor Prison, but never was able to touch Mandela and his comrades because they were on one side of the apartheid prison wall, and he and a few other Jewish heroes of the ANC were on the other. Denis Goldberg, Albie Sachs, Joe Slovo, Ruth First - perhaps you've heard of these people. If you haven't, look them up. Jews don't have to be on the side of apartheid. They can stand up against it, and I say to those who imagine that they are friends of the state of Israel, whose flag was just waved in my face, turn away from the racist, apartheid ideology of Zionism. Turn back towards where Jews were before the emergence of the hegemony of Zionism.
The greatest people on the earth were Jews. The leaders of the socialists, communists, trade unions, liberal enlightenment, throughout the 17th, 18th, 19th centuries, were great Jews. Marx himself was a Jew. None of them believed that, as Jews, they should go and take somebody else's country, and drive millions of them around the world as refugees. All of them would have turned their backs against such an ideology. But because of my experience in South Africa... because of my time in South Africa, because of the decades that I worked against apartheid in South Africa, do you imagine that I would turn up at a university and debate apartheid with a supporter of the apartheid regime from South Africa? I'd rather punch him in the face than debate with him. Why? Because apartheid is a racist poison. It is the worst kind of fascism, and I would never debate with any supporter of South African apartheid. Why should I debate with a supporter of Israeli apartheid?
Time: 14/10/13
Zionist Smartypants (referring to an earlier declaration by Galloway that he doesn't debate Israelis):
If I said in a debate that I would not debate with a Pakistani, I would rightly be called a racist. My question for you is: Are you a racist? (Vigorous applause)
George Galloway:
Why are you applauding that? What kind of people would applaud that? Am I a racist? You've sat through the last hour and a half of me speaking and you're applauding someone asking me if I'm a racist? What kind of people are you? Or do you just applaud anything? Would you just applaud anything?
I'll let you in on something you don't know. I'm one of the few people on the Left in Britain who travelled the length and breadth of South Africa as an underground agent of the ANC led by Nelson Mandela, then in Pollsmoor Prison in Capetown. Therefore, the subject of apartheid is particularly important to me. The question of racism is particularly important to me and, in parenthesis, let me tell you this: throughout the entirety of my time underground in South Africa under apartheid, every house I slept in, every dinner I ate, every car I drove in was provided by Jewish activists of the ANC.
So Jews don't have to be on the side of apartheid (Applause), they don't have to be on the side of racism (Vigorous applause). Jewish heroes - amongst my blood brotherhood, like Denis Goldberg, who served 27 years on Robben Island, in Pollsmoor Prison, but never was able to touch Mandela and his comrades because they were on one side of the apartheid prison wall, and he and a few other Jewish heroes of the ANC were on the other. Denis Goldberg, Albie Sachs, Joe Slovo, Ruth First - perhaps you've heard of these people. If you haven't, look them up. Jews don't have to be on the side of apartheid. They can stand up against it, and I say to those who imagine that they are friends of the state of Israel, whose flag was just waved in my face, turn away from the racist, apartheid ideology of Zionism. Turn back towards where Jews were before the emergence of the hegemony of Zionism.
The greatest people on the earth were Jews. The leaders of the socialists, communists, trade unions, liberal enlightenment, throughout the 17th, 18th, 19th centuries, were great Jews. Marx himself was a Jew. None of them believed that, as Jews, they should go and take somebody else's country, and drive millions of them around the world as refugees. All of them would have turned their backs against such an ideology. But because of my experience in South Africa... because of my time in South Africa, because of the decades that I worked against apartheid in South Africa, do you imagine that I would turn up at a university and debate apartheid with a supporter of the apartheid regime from South Africa? I'd rather punch him in the face than debate with him. Why? Because apartheid is a racist poison. It is the worst kind of fascism, and I would never debate with any supporter of South African apartheid. Why should I debate with a supporter of Israeli apartheid?
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Boland As Brass
"When Sydney gallery owner Gene Sherman asked an Israeli architecture collective to create a series of tent-like structures to display at her Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation in Paddington, Sydney, she knew the commission would be contentious." (Layers of meaning in canopies from Israel, Michaela Boland, The Australian, 21/8/15)
Contentious, yes, but did she know who'd be reviewing the exhibition for the Murdoch press? Apparently not.
You see, just occasionally a journalist for the Australian has been known to go off-script. The last to do so was their Middle East correspondent, John Lyons, and, to cut a long story short, well, he's no longer their Middle East correspondent. Still, truth will out occasionally, even in the Australian:
"As rockets were raining down on the Gaza Strip last year leaving tens of thousands homeless and killing many others..."
OMG, Michaela Boland's gone way off-script. She's got the rockets raining down bit right, but they're supposed to be Hamas rockets raining down on Israel, FFS, not Israeli rockets raining down on the Gaza Strip!
Poor old Gene Sherman's probably thinking: 'Why the hell did they have to send someone who flunked Zionist Talking Points 101? Couldn't they have sent bloody Greg Sheridan instead?
Pushing on:
"... architects Sack and Reicher + Muller started working out in Tel Aviv how to shape the canopies from greenhouse fabric.
"The resulting curved, airy shelters go on display free to the public at SCAF this week but they should not be construed as a straightforward solution to homelessness, or as a simple show of empathy from behind the barrier to homeless Palestinians."
Homeless Palestinians! Homeless Palestinians?
This Michaela Boland's as bold as brass. Doesn't she give a damn where her bread and butter's coming from? Is this some kind of death-wish?
"Sherman is a frequent visitor to Israel where her daughter and grandchildren live. 'Certainly the Palestinians (have been made homeless), the Jews were homeless for thousands of years,' she says."
Again! Will you look at that interpolation! That's Palestinian homelessness twice in the same piece!
Is it Boland or just plain BOLD?
Ah, but Sherman's not taking this lying down:
Notice how she hits back with the old 'Our homelessness is bigger than their homelessness' line? And then, just for good measure, throws in:
"'The Palestinians are equal contestants for the same land. I support a two-state solution'."
Contentious, yes, but did she know who'd be reviewing the exhibition for the Murdoch press? Apparently not.
You see, just occasionally a journalist for the Australian has been known to go off-script. The last to do so was their Middle East correspondent, John Lyons, and, to cut a long story short, well, he's no longer their Middle East correspondent. Still, truth will out occasionally, even in the Australian:
"As rockets were raining down on the Gaza Strip last year leaving tens of thousands homeless and killing many others..."
OMG, Michaela Boland's gone way off-script. She's got the rockets raining down bit right, but they're supposed to be Hamas rockets raining down on Israel, FFS, not Israeli rockets raining down on the Gaza Strip!
Poor old Gene Sherman's probably thinking: 'Why the hell did they have to send someone who flunked Zionist Talking Points 101? Couldn't they have sent bloody Greg Sheridan instead?
Pushing on:
"... architects Sack and Reicher + Muller started working out in Tel Aviv how to shape the canopies from greenhouse fabric.
"The resulting curved, airy shelters go on display free to the public at SCAF this week but they should not be construed as a straightforward solution to homelessness, or as a simple show of empathy from behind the barrier to homeless Palestinians."
Homeless Palestinians! Homeless Palestinians?
This Michaela Boland's as bold as brass. Doesn't she give a damn where her bread and butter's coming from? Is this some kind of death-wish?
"Sherman is a frequent visitor to Israel where her daughter and grandchildren live. 'Certainly the Palestinians (have been made homeless), the Jews were homeless for thousands of years,' she says."
Again! Will you look at that interpolation! That's Palestinian homelessness twice in the same piece!
Is it Boland or just plain BOLD?
Ah, but Sherman's not taking this lying down:
Notice how she hits back with the old 'Our homelessness is bigger than their homelessness' line? And then, just for good measure, throws in:
"'The Palestinians are equal contestants for the same land. I support a two-state solution'."
Friday, August 21, 2015
ABC: Absolute Bloody Crap
Seriously now, isn't life too short to waste on 8 hours of BBC (now on ABC television) crap like The Honourable Woman:
"[Hugo] Blick returns with this gripping Middle East thriller [setting] his story against the backdrop of government paranoia and espionage, chronicling the story of one woman's journey to right the wrongs of a past life. As a young girl, Anglo-Israeli Nessa Stein witnessed the assassination of her father by the armed wing of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Now in her late 30s, Nessa is at the forefront of the Middle East peace process. An independent entrepreneur, equal parts idealist and pragmatist, she has worked tirelessly to help cultivate an atmosphere of reconciliation between the Israelis and Palestinians..." (Intelligence serviced in Middle East thriller, Graeme Blundell, The Australian, 20/8/15)
Right the wrongs?
Anglo-Israeli means either that Nessa Stein calls England home, but has a weekender in Israel, or calls Israel home, but has a weekender in the Old Dart. Either way, as a Zionist colon, you'd have to say she's on a bloody good wicket.
And either way, Palestine's exiled indigenous Arab population, from which sprang the PLO, has neither home nor weekender.
I bet that's not the wrong she's setting out to right.
Then there's Mr Blick's Big Bad Palestinians.
Notice how its always the BBPs who manage to cause the problems, in this case by knocking off Daddy dear. Why would anyone want to assassinate him? Such a sweetie.
But then that's what BBPs always do, right? Attack - forcing poor little Israel to defend itself.
And of course Nessa's bent on peace, like all Israelis, constantly making generous offers and painful compromises, only to be rejected at every turn. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride!
As for the occupation?
What occupation?
The right of return?
What right of return?
Seriously now, 8 hours?
"[Hugo] Blick returns with this gripping Middle East thriller [setting] his story against the backdrop of government paranoia and espionage, chronicling the story of one woman's journey to right the wrongs of a past life. As a young girl, Anglo-Israeli Nessa Stein witnessed the assassination of her father by the armed wing of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Now in her late 30s, Nessa is at the forefront of the Middle East peace process. An independent entrepreneur, equal parts idealist and pragmatist, she has worked tirelessly to help cultivate an atmosphere of reconciliation between the Israelis and Palestinians..." (Intelligence serviced in Middle East thriller, Graeme Blundell, The Australian, 20/8/15)
Right the wrongs?
Anglo-Israeli means either that Nessa Stein calls England home, but has a weekender in Israel, or calls Israel home, but has a weekender in the Old Dart. Either way, as a Zionist colon, you'd have to say she's on a bloody good wicket.
And either way, Palestine's exiled indigenous Arab population, from which sprang the PLO, has neither home nor weekender.
I bet that's not the wrong she's setting out to right.
Then there's Mr Blick's Big Bad Palestinians.
Notice how its always the BBPs who manage to cause the problems, in this case by knocking off Daddy dear. Why would anyone want to assassinate him? Such a sweetie.
But then that's what BBPs always do, right? Attack - forcing poor little Israel to defend itself.
And of course Nessa's bent on peace, like all Israelis, constantly making generous offers and painful compromises, only to be rejected at every turn. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride!
As for the occupation?
What occupation?
The right of return?
What right of return?
Seriously now, 8 hours?
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Open Veins of Africa
A hugely important letter published in the UK Guardian (11/8/15), touching on the flood of African and Middle Eastern asylum seekers now heading for Europe:
"As organisations working to address global poverty, we condemn Phillip Hammond's [British Defence Secretary] warped claims about African migrants (Report, 10 August). It is not 'marauding' African migrants, but the UK and other wealthy nations that are threatening living standards and causing poverty for people in Africa and across the world. Sub-Saharan Africa loses $192 bn to the rest of the world each year. In return it receives just $30bn back in aid. Whether it is our network of tax havens that allows the theft of billions from countries in Africa each year, the costs we save by recruiting health workers from the world's poorest countries, the aid we give as loans which contribute to the looming debt crisis, or our carbon emissions which force African countries to pay out billions to adapt to the climate change we cause, it is the UK and our wealthy allies, not African migrants, doing the marauding.
"The UN is clear that most migrants attempting to reach the EU are fleeing persecution or conflict. These people have the right to protection under international law. The British government claims it wants to stop the minority who are fleeing poverty making dangerous journeys to the UK. The solution does not lie in increased security in Calais. It is in ending our own contributions to global poverty." (signed by 9 UK aid organisations)
The letter reminded me irresistably of the late Eduardo Galeano's wonderful 1971 book Open Veins of Latin America, from which, obviously, comes the title of this post:
"The division of labor among nations is that some specialize in winning and others in losing. Our part of the world, known today as Latin America, was precocious: it has specialized in losing ever since those remote times when Renaissance Europeans ventured across the ocean and buried their teeth in the throats of the Indian civilizations. Centuries passed, and Latin America perfected its role. We are no longer in the era of marvels when face surpassed fable and imagination was shamed by the trophies of conquest - the lodes of gold, the mountains of silver. But our region still works as a menial. It continues to exist at the service of others' needs, as a source and reserve of oil and iron, of copper and meat, of fruit and coffee, the raw materials and foods destined for rich countries which profit more from consuming them than Latin America does from producing them...
"Latin America is the region of open veins. Everything, from the discovery until our times, has always been transmuted into European - or later United states - capital, and as such has accumulated in distant centers of power. Everything: the soil, its fruits and its mineral-rich depths, the people and their capacity to work and to consume, natural resources and human resources. Production methods and class structure have been successively determined from outside for each area by meshing it into the universal gearbox of capitalism. To each area has been assigned a function, always for the benefit of the foreign metropolis of the moment, and the endless chain of dependency has been endlessly extended."
"As organisations working to address global poverty, we condemn Phillip Hammond's [British Defence Secretary] warped claims about African migrants (Report, 10 August). It is not 'marauding' African migrants, but the UK and other wealthy nations that are threatening living standards and causing poverty for people in Africa and across the world. Sub-Saharan Africa loses $192 bn to the rest of the world each year. In return it receives just $30bn back in aid. Whether it is our network of tax havens that allows the theft of billions from countries in Africa each year, the costs we save by recruiting health workers from the world's poorest countries, the aid we give as loans which contribute to the looming debt crisis, or our carbon emissions which force African countries to pay out billions to adapt to the climate change we cause, it is the UK and our wealthy allies, not African migrants, doing the marauding.
"The UN is clear that most migrants attempting to reach the EU are fleeing persecution or conflict. These people have the right to protection under international law. The British government claims it wants to stop the minority who are fleeing poverty making dangerous journeys to the UK. The solution does not lie in increased security in Calais. It is in ending our own contributions to global poverty." (signed by 9 UK aid organisations)
The letter reminded me irresistably of the late Eduardo Galeano's wonderful 1971 book Open Veins of Latin America, from which, obviously, comes the title of this post:
"The division of labor among nations is that some specialize in winning and others in losing. Our part of the world, known today as Latin America, was precocious: it has specialized in losing ever since those remote times when Renaissance Europeans ventured across the ocean and buried their teeth in the throats of the Indian civilizations. Centuries passed, and Latin America perfected its role. We are no longer in the era of marvels when face surpassed fable and imagination was shamed by the trophies of conquest - the lodes of gold, the mountains of silver. But our region still works as a menial. It continues to exist at the service of others' needs, as a source and reserve of oil and iron, of copper and meat, of fruit and coffee, the raw materials and foods destined for rich countries which profit more from consuming them than Latin America does from producing them...
"Latin America is the region of open veins. Everything, from the discovery until our times, has always been transmuted into European - or later United states - capital, and as such has accumulated in distant centers of power. Everything: the soil, its fruits and its mineral-rich depths, the people and their capacity to work and to consume, natural resources and human resources. Production methods and class structure have been successively determined from outside for each area by meshing it into the universal gearbox of capitalism. To each area has been assigned a function, always for the benefit of the foreign metropolis of the moment, and the endless chain of dependency has been endlessly extended."
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Made in Israel: America's Next War - Part 2
Continued from the previous post...
Israel's Proxies and the Obama-Iran Nuclear Accord
"All the major US spy agencies, including the CIA, long ago concluded that Iran did not have a nuclear weapons program. Its nuclear program has been proven to be limited to legal, internationally-sanctioned, peaceful civilian use. When the US intelligence establishment went 'off-script' and cleared Iran of a nuclear weapons program, Israel responded by brazenly assassinating five Iranian scientists and engineers, leaking faked evidence of a nuclear weapons program, and directing its US proxies to push the US toward greater economic sanctions. They escalated their media campaign, demonizing Iran, pushing for an economic and military blockade of Iran using the US naval forces in the Persian Gulf and its military bases in adjoining countries. Israeli officials want yet another US war for Israel along the lines of the Iraq invasion.
"With the recent change in the Iranian government leadership via democratic elections there have been serious serious expressions of greater flexibility with regard to inspections of its nuclear programs and facilities. At the same time, Washington has been confronted with multiple, escalating insurgent wars in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan. This provides the context for President Obama's 'pivot' toward negotiations and diplomacy to secure an agreement with Iran and away from military confrontation.
"This has infuriated the Netanyahu regime. Its government leaders and agents met with the Presidents of the 52 Major American Jewish Organizations, leading Zionist Washington insiders like Dennis Ross, super-rich Zionist billionaires, and multiple delegations of notables, and told them to launch an all-out campaign to sabotage the Iran-US-England-France-Russia-China and Germany ('P5+1') nuclear agreement.
"The entire Zionist political apparatus immediately organized a multi-pronged, multi-million dollar campaign blitz to undermine the US President. The American (sic) Israel Political Affairs Committee (AIPAC) mobilized hundreds of its full-time functionaries, invading the US Congress with offers of all- expenses-paid junkets to Israel, political threats, campaign 'donation' enticements, and outright blackmail.
"Influential US Zionist Congress people joined the onslaught with their 'leader', the senator from Tel Aviv, Charles Schumer, accompanied by his fellow Zionist one-hundred percenters. Congress people like Steve Israel, Ted Deutsch, Eliot Engel and Nita Lowery. They have openly chosen to follow the dictates of the Israeli prime minister against their fellow Democrat, US President Obama. Schumer, who frequently boasts that his name derives from 'shomer Yisrael' (Israel's Guardian), flaunts his 'role in Washington' to serve Israel's interest. The unannounced (or undenounced) 'elephant in the room' is their primary loyalty to Israel over the US. The Democratic Congressional Zionists have joined hands with the Republican war-mongers - both in tow to militarists, Zionist billionaires and media moguls. The 52 Organizations brazenly announced a $40 million budget to fund an Israeli front group, 'Citizens for a Nuclear-Free Iran', to undermine President Obama's (and other members of the P5+1) push for diplomacy.
"Netanyahu's 'megaphones' in the US mass media spread his message in their daily reports and editorial pages. The Zionist power configuration ran roughshod over dissident Jewish voters and Congress people who dared to support Obama's Iran agreement - an agreement which has majority support of the war-weary US public and support from US scientists and Nobel Prize recipients.
"President Obama has finally counterattacked this campaign to undermine the agreement, calling attention to the fact that 'the same people who led us into the Iraq war are pushing us into war with Iran'. The President discreetly omitted identifying the Israeli links of 'the same people'.
"Obama understands that the alternative to the peace accord opposed by Israel and the Zionist-led US Congress members will be a devastating regional war, costing trillions of dollars in losses to the US economy, thousands of US lives and hundreds of thousands of wounded soldiers - not to speak of millions of Iranian casualties - and an environmental holocaust! While the Zionist power configuration saturates the airwaves with its unending lies and fear-mongering, each and every major city and community Jewish Confederation have sent their activists to plant stories and twist arms to sabotage the agreement.
"While many US intellectuals, liberals, progressives, and leftists support the US-Iran agreement (see the Scientists' Letter to Obama on Iran Nuclear Deal, 8/8/15, with 29 top scholars and Nobel laureates supporting diplomacy), few would dare to identify and attack Israel's US proxies as they promote Tel Aviv's agenda pushing the US to war with Iran. A brief glance through the sectarian left press, for example, The Socialist Register, New Politics, New Left Review, finds no discussion of the powerful, well-financed, highly organized, elite-driven Israeli proxies and their role in determining US wars in the Middle East, and more specifically the war agenda toward Iran.
Conclusion
"The success or failure of the US-Iran nuclear agreement will have momentous, world-historic consequences that go far beyond the middle East. Obama is absolutely right to pose the question as one between a diplomatic accord or a large-scale, long-term devastating war. But war is what Israel, its leaders, its majority and its opposition parties are demanding and what its US proxies are pursuing.
"The basic question for all Americans is whether we will act as an independent, sovereign country pursuing peace through diplomacy, as we currently see unfolding with Iran and Cuba, or a submissive military instrument, directed by Israel's proxies, hell-bent on destroying America for Israel." (petras.lahaine.org)
Israel's Proxies and the Obama-Iran Nuclear Accord
"All the major US spy agencies, including the CIA, long ago concluded that Iran did not have a nuclear weapons program. Its nuclear program has been proven to be limited to legal, internationally-sanctioned, peaceful civilian use. When the US intelligence establishment went 'off-script' and cleared Iran of a nuclear weapons program, Israel responded by brazenly assassinating five Iranian scientists and engineers, leaking faked evidence of a nuclear weapons program, and directing its US proxies to push the US toward greater economic sanctions. They escalated their media campaign, demonizing Iran, pushing for an economic and military blockade of Iran using the US naval forces in the Persian Gulf and its military bases in adjoining countries. Israeli officials want yet another US war for Israel along the lines of the Iraq invasion.
"With the recent change in the Iranian government leadership via democratic elections there have been serious serious expressions of greater flexibility with regard to inspections of its nuclear programs and facilities. At the same time, Washington has been confronted with multiple, escalating insurgent wars in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan. This provides the context for President Obama's 'pivot' toward negotiations and diplomacy to secure an agreement with Iran and away from military confrontation.
"This has infuriated the Netanyahu regime. Its government leaders and agents met with the Presidents of the 52 Major American Jewish Organizations, leading Zionist Washington insiders like Dennis Ross, super-rich Zionist billionaires, and multiple delegations of notables, and told them to launch an all-out campaign to sabotage the Iran-US-England-France-Russia-China and Germany ('P5+1') nuclear agreement.
"The entire Zionist political apparatus immediately organized a multi-pronged, multi-million dollar campaign blitz to undermine the US President. The American (sic) Israel Political Affairs Committee (AIPAC) mobilized hundreds of its full-time functionaries, invading the US Congress with offers of all- expenses-paid junkets to Israel, political threats, campaign 'donation' enticements, and outright blackmail.
"Influential US Zionist Congress people joined the onslaught with their 'leader', the senator from Tel Aviv, Charles Schumer, accompanied by his fellow Zionist one-hundred percenters. Congress people like Steve Israel, Ted Deutsch, Eliot Engel and Nita Lowery. They have openly chosen to follow the dictates of the Israeli prime minister against their fellow Democrat, US President Obama. Schumer, who frequently boasts that his name derives from 'shomer Yisrael' (Israel's Guardian), flaunts his 'role in Washington' to serve Israel's interest. The unannounced (or undenounced) 'elephant in the room' is their primary loyalty to Israel over the US. The Democratic Congressional Zionists have joined hands with the Republican war-mongers - both in tow to militarists, Zionist billionaires and media moguls. The 52 Organizations brazenly announced a $40 million budget to fund an Israeli front group, 'Citizens for a Nuclear-Free Iran', to undermine President Obama's (and other members of the P5+1) push for diplomacy.
"Netanyahu's 'megaphones' in the US mass media spread his message in their daily reports and editorial pages. The Zionist power configuration ran roughshod over dissident Jewish voters and Congress people who dared to support Obama's Iran agreement - an agreement which has majority support of the war-weary US public and support from US scientists and Nobel Prize recipients.
"President Obama has finally counterattacked this campaign to undermine the agreement, calling attention to the fact that 'the same people who led us into the Iraq war are pushing us into war with Iran'. The President discreetly omitted identifying the Israeli links of 'the same people'.
"Obama understands that the alternative to the peace accord opposed by Israel and the Zionist-led US Congress members will be a devastating regional war, costing trillions of dollars in losses to the US economy, thousands of US lives and hundreds of thousands of wounded soldiers - not to speak of millions of Iranian casualties - and an environmental holocaust! While the Zionist power configuration saturates the airwaves with its unending lies and fear-mongering, each and every major city and community Jewish Confederation have sent their activists to plant stories and twist arms to sabotage the agreement.
"While many US intellectuals, liberals, progressives, and leftists support the US-Iran agreement (see the Scientists' Letter to Obama on Iran Nuclear Deal, 8/8/15, with 29 top scholars and Nobel laureates supporting diplomacy), few would dare to identify and attack Israel's US proxies as they promote Tel Aviv's agenda pushing the US to war with Iran. A brief glance through the sectarian left press, for example, The Socialist Register, New Politics, New Left Review, finds no discussion of the powerful, well-financed, highly organized, elite-driven Israeli proxies and their role in determining US wars in the Middle East, and more specifically the war agenda toward Iran.
Conclusion
"The success or failure of the US-Iran nuclear agreement will have momentous, world-historic consequences that go far beyond the middle East. Obama is absolutely right to pose the question as one between a diplomatic accord or a large-scale, long-term devastating war. But war is what Israel, its leaders, its majority and its opposition parties are demanding and what its US proxies are pursuing.
"The basic question for all Americans is whether we will act as an independent, sovereign country pursuing peace through diplomacy, as we currently see unfolding with Iran and Cuba, or a submissive military instrument, directed by Israel's proxies, hell-bent on destroying America for Israel." (petras.lahaine.org)
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Made in Israel: America's Next War - Part 1
There's far more to US politics at the moment than the circus antics of presidential wannabes such as Trump or Clinton.
Although you won't read about it in the Australian msm, there's actually a make-or-break struggle going on between Israel (and its US fifth column) and the US president as to whether more American blood and treasure should be spilled/squandered (this time in a war against Iran) to keep Israel in the manner to which it has become accustomed, namely, top dog in the Middle East.
For the big picture, beginning with the background, and concluding tomorrow with the current state of play, here's the latest must-read James Petras essay:
The Conference of 52 Presidents of the Major American (sic) Jewish Organizations & the US-Iran Nuclear Agreement: The Centrepiece of US Foreign Policy Struggle
Prologue
In the village of Duma, an 18-month-old baby died following the fire-bombing of his family's home by Israeli settlers. The father of the child died of burns a week later and the surviving mother and young sibling are barely alive - covered with burns from racist Jewish arson.
"The United Nations Special Committee to investigate Israel's practices toward Palestinians in Israeli-occupied territory has revealed that the 'root cause' of the escalating violence is the 'continuous policy of Jewish settlement expansion (financed and defended by the Netanyahu regime) and the climate of impunity relating to the activities of the settlers (financed and defended by the Presidents of the 52 Major American Jewish Organizations). (UN News Centre, 10/8/15)
Introduction
The recent US-Iran nuclear agreement, titled the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), has implications far beyond the ending of nearly 40 years of regional confrontation.
"Several fundamental issues concerning the nature of US policymaking, the power of a foreign regime (Israel) in deciding questions of war and peace, and the role organized power configurations with overseas loyalties play in making and breaking executive and legislative authorities.
"To investigate these fundamental issues it is important to discuss the historical context leading up to the rise of this paradoxical situation: Where a 'global power' is subjected to the dictates of a second-rate state through the strategic penetration and influence of domestic organizations composed of 'nominal citizens' of the subject state with 'divided (to put it politely) loyalties'.
The Centrality of Israel's Unchallenged Regional Supremacy
"The motor force of Israeli foreign and domestic policy is their drive for unchallenged regional supremacy: Military dominance through wars, territorial occupation, brutal armed interventions, extra-territorial political assassinations of opponents and favorable one-sided treaties. To ensure its unquestioned dominance Israel has developed the only nuclear weapons arsenal and largest missile launch capacity in the region, and has openly declared its willingness to use nuclear weapons against regional rivals.
"Israel's repeated mantra that it faces an 'existential threat' from its Arab neighbors and subjugated Palestinians has no factual basis. On the contrary, history has taught the world that Israel, directly and indirectly, has engaged in a series of aggressive wars devastating its Arab and Muslim neighbors. Israel has bombed and/or invaded Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Sudan. Israel has assassinated scientists in Iran and Palestinian political leasers, as well as intellectuals, writers and poets in the Gulf, Jordan and Europe. [And Lebanon: MERC] Even family members have not been spared Israeli terror.
"Israel can brutalize its neighbors with total impunity because of its vast military superiority, but its real power is found in its overseas proxies, the Tel Aviv-dominated Zionist power configurations [ZPCs], especially in North America and Europe. The most important proxy organizations and individuals operate in the United States. Thanks to them Israel has received over $150 billion dollars in economic and military grants and loans from US taxpayers in the past half-century. Each year Israel rakes in billions in tribute, billions in tax-free donations from billionaire Israel loyalists with dual US citizenship, who extract their wealth from American workers, investors and gamblers, and hundreds of billions via unrestricted investments, privileged market access and technology transfers.
"The economic and military transfers to Israel result from the cumulative build-up of political power among powerful US Zionists. No one today disputes that what is dubbed the 'pro-Israel lobby' is the most powerful configuration inside Washington DC today. Focusing primarily on the 'Israel lobby' overlooks the powerful role that influential, Zionist political officials have played in deciding issues prioritized by the Israeli leadership.
"Israeli power over the making and implementing of US Middle East policy has led to the US invasions of Iraq, Syria and Libya; the current economic boycott and blockade of Iran; the breakup of Sudan; and the bombing of Somalia.
"Israeli power in the US operates through various political instruments in different institutional settings. The pro-Israel mass media moguls at the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and all the TV networks unconditionally defend Israel's bombing, dispossession and repression of Palestinians while demonizing any Arab or Muslim states which have opposed its brutality - frequently calling for the US to impose sanctions and/or to launch armed attacks against Israel's critics.
"The US military campaign known as the 'Global War on Terror', a series of brutal invasions and 'regime changes' launched after the attacks of September 11, 2001, was formulated and promoted by fanatical Israeli proxies in strategic positions within the Bush government, especially Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, 'Scooter' Libby, Elliott Abrams and Richard Perle. The boycott of Iran was designed and implemented by US Treasury officials Levey and Cohen. The drumbeat for war in Iraq and the phony 'intelligence' about 'weapons of mass destruction' was propagated by New York Times scribe, Judith Miller, designed by Wolfowitz and Feith, backed by the 52 Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations, and ultimately paid for with the lives of over 5,000 Americans and well over a million Iraqi civilians. The destruction and breakup of Iraq, a long-time supporter of Palestinian national rights, was accomplished without the loss of a single Israeli life - despite the enormous benefit the Jewish state has enjoyed from the war! The extraordinary success of this highest Israeli military priority was due entirely to the machinations of Israel's highly placed US proxies.
"Yet the cost of the war has been very high for the American people (and unimaginably high for Iraqis): Over a quarter million physical and mental casualties among US troops; two trillion dollars and counting in military expenditures crippling the US economy and a vast and growing army of Islamist and nationalist rebels opposing US interests throughout the region.
"The Israeli power configuration within the US led the US into a war which enhanced Israel's dominance of the Middle East and accelerated its annexation of Palestinian land. But Israeli ambition for total regional power is not complete. It still faces a formidable opponent to its conquest of the Middle East: Iran remains a staunch supporter of the people and national sovereignty of Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.
"The regime of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, backed by the entire Israeli political opposition and the majority of the Jewish electorate, has been aggressively pushing for a US confrontation with Iran - through economic and eventually military warfare.
"There have been scores of public and private meetings in the US and elsewhere where Netanyahu's regime 'informed' (or rather dictated to) the entire Zionist power configuration to launch an economic and military attack against Iran with the open aim of 'regime change' and the ultimate aim of breaking up and destroying the Islamic Republic - similar to the destruction of Iraq, Libya, and now Syria."
Part 2 to follow...
Although you won't read about it in the Australian msm, there's actually a make-or-break struggle going on between Israel (and its US fifth column) and the US president as to whether more American blood and treasure should be spilled/squandered (this time in a war against Iran) to keep Israel in the manner to which it has become accustomed, namely, top dog in the Middle East.
For the big picture, beginning with the background, and concluding tomorrow with the current state of play, here's the latest must-read James Petras essay:
The Conference of 52 Presidents of the Major American (sic) Jewish Organizations & the US-Iran Nuclear Agreement: The Centrepiece of US Foreign Policy Struggle
Prologue
In the village of Duma, an 18-month-old baby died following the fire-bombing of his family's home by Israeli settlers. The father of the child died of burns a week later and the surviving mother and young sibling are barely alive - covered with burns from racist Jewish arson.
"The United Nations Special Committee to investigate Israel's practices toward Palestinians in Israeli-occupied territory has revealed that the 'root cause' of the escalating violence is the 'continuous policy of Jewish settlement expansion (financed and defended by the Netanyahu regime) and the climate of impunity relating to the activities of the settlers (financed and defended by the Presidents of the 52 Major American Jewish Organizations). (UN News Centre, 10/8/15)
Introduction
The recent US-Iran nuclear agreement, titled the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), has implications far beyond the ending of nearly 40 years of regional confrontation.
"Several fundamental issues concerning the nature of US policymaking, the power of a foreign regime (Israel) in deciding questions of war and peace, and the role organized power configurations with overseas loyalties play in making and breaking executive and legislative authorities.
"To investigate these fundamental issues it is important to discuss the historical context leading up to the rise of this paradoxical situation: Where a 'global power' is subjected to the dictates of a second-rate state through the strategic penetration and influence of domestic organizations composed of 'nominal citizens' of the subject state with 'divided (to put it politely) loyalties'.
The Centrality of Israel's Unchallenged Regional Supremacy
"The motor force of Israeli foreign and domestic policy is their drive for unchallenged regional supremacy: Military dominance through wars, territorial occupation, brutal armed interventions, extra-territorial political assassinations of opponents and favorable one-sided treaties. To ensure its unquestioned dominance Israel has developed the only nuclear weapons arsenal and largest missile launch capacity in the region, and has openly declared its willingness to use nuclear weapons against regional rivals.
"Israel's repeated mantra that it faces an 'existential threat' from its Arab neighbors and subjugated Palestinians has no factual basis. On the contrary, history has taught the world that Israel, directly and indirectly, has engaged in a series of aggressive wars devastating its Arab and Muslim neighbors. Israel has bombed and/or invaded Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Sudan. Israel has assassinated scientists in Iran and Palestinian political leasers, as well as intellectuals, writers and poets in the Gulf, Jordan and Europe. [And Lebanon: MERC] Even family members have not been spared Israeli terror.
"Israel can brutalize its neighbors with total impunity because of its vast military superiority, but its real power is found in its overseas proxies, the Tel Aviv-dominated Zionist power configurations [ZPCs], especially in North America and Europe. The most important proxy organizations and individuals operate in the United States. Thanks to them Israel has received over $150 billion dollars in economic and military grants and loans from US taxpayers in the past half-century. Each year Israel rakes in billions in tribute, billions in tax-free donations from billionaire Israel loyalists with dual US citizenship, who extract their wealth from American workers, investors and gamblers, and hundreds of billions via unrestricted investments, privileged market access and technology transfers.
"The economic and military transfers to Israel result from the cumulative build-up of political power among powerful US Zionists. No one today disputes that what is dubbed the 'pro-Israel lobby' is the most powerful configuration inside Washington DC today. Focusing primarily on the 'Israel lobby' overlooks the powerful role that influential, Zionist political officials have played in deciding issues prioritized by the Israeli leadership.
"Israeli power over the making and implementing of US Middle East policy has led to the US invasions of Iraq, Syria and Libya; the current economic boycott and blockade of Iran; the breakup of Sudan; and the bombing of Somalia.
"Israeli power in the US operates through various political instruments in different institutional settings. The pro-Israel mass media moguls at the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and all the TV networks unconditionally defend Israel's bombing, dispossession and repression of Palestinians while demonizing any Arab or Muslim states which have opposed its brutality - frequently calling for the US to impose sanctions and/or to launch armed attacks against Israel's critics.
"The US military campaign known as the 'Global War on Terror', a series of brutal invasions and 'regime changes' launched after the attacks of September 11, 2001, was formulated and promoted by fanatical Israeli proxies in strategic positions within the Bush government, especially Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, 'Scooter' Libby, Elliott Abrams and Richard Perle. The boycott of Iran was designed and implemented by US Treasury officials Levey and Cohen. The drumbeat for war in Iraq and the phony 'intelligence' about 'weapons of mass destruction' was propagated by New York Times scribe, Judith Miller, designed by Wolfowitz and Feith, backed by the 52 Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations, and ultimately paid for with the lives of over 5,000 Americans and well over a million Iraqi civilians. The destruction and breakup of Iraq, a long-time supporter of Palestinian national rights, was accomplished without the loss of a single Israeli life - despite the enormous benefit the Jewish state has enjoyed from the war! The extraordinary success of this highest Israeli military priority was due entirely to the machinations of Israel's highly placed US proxies.
"Yet the cost of the war has been very high for the American people (and unimaginably high for Iraqis): Over a quarter million physical and mental casualties among US troops; two trillion dollars and counting in military expenditures crippling the US economy and a vast and growing army of Islamist and nationalist rebels opposing US interests throughout the region.
"The Israeli power configuration within the US led the US into a war which enhanced Israel's dominance of the Middle East and accelerated its annexation of Palestinian land. But Israeli ambition for total regional power is not complete. It still faces a formidable opponent to its conquest of the Middle East: Iran remains a staunch supporter of the people and national sovereignty of Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.
"The regime of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, backed by the entire Israeli political opposition and the majority of the Jewish electorate, has been aggressively pushing for a US confrontation with Iran - through economic and eventually military warfare.
"There have been scores of public and private meetings in the US and elsewhere where Netanyahu's regime 'informed' (or rather dictated to) the entire Zionist power configuration to launch an economic and military attack against Iran with the open aim of 'regime change' and the ultimate aim of breaking up and destroying the Islamic Republic - similar to the destruction of Iraq, Libya, and now Syria."
Part 2 to follow...
Monday, August 17, 2015
Israeli Desires vs American Interests
The most bizarre phenomenon in the annals of political science has to be the spectacle of the elected representatives of 'the world's greatest democracy' consistently choosing Israeli desires over American interests.
Next month's congressional vote on Obama's Iran nuclear agreement will pit an Israel lobby-funded and -manipulated US Congress against America's president. The outcome of the vote will determine just who is the most powerful political leader in the US today, its democratically-elected president, Barack Obama, or Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu.
Read on:
Congress' Test of Allegiance: US or Israel?
by John V. Whitbeck
"Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has instructed the US Congress to reject an international agreement constraining Iran's nuclear program and to humiliate the sitting US president, thus testing where the primary allegiance of most members of Congress lies, with the US or Israel.
"The choice facing members of the US Congress in September's 'disapproval' votes could scarcely be clearer and has little to do with the merits of the international agreement reached on July 14 with respect to Iran's nuclear program...
"Since this... agreement is obviously good news for the world, the UN Security Council has unanimously approved it and only one of the UN's 193 member states, Israel, is currently opposed to it.
"The choice before members of Congress is thus a clear and simple one: Do they owe their primary allegiance and loyalty to the United States of America or to Israel?
"The great majority of members of Congress have traditionally seen less personal career risk in favoring Israeli desires over American interests than in favoring American interests over Israeli desires. There has been good empirical evidence to support this self-serving calculation. Several prominent and patriotic American politicians have lost their reelection bids as a result of the perception that they put American residents ahead of Israeli desires, and it has become a truism in American politics that 'no one has ever lost an election for being too pro-Israel'.
"However, the choice facing members of Congress has never been so clear-cut and consequential as in the imminent 'disapproval' votes on the Iran nuclear agreement.
"At first glance, it appeared that President Obama had outsmarted the Republican Congressional leadership by getting them to agree that approval of American participation in any Iran nuclear agreement would not require an inconceivable two-thirds majority of the Senate but, rather, only a post-veto one-third minority approval in one of the two houses of Congress.
"However, particularly since the influential Democratic Senator from New York Chuck Schumer, poised to become the next Democratic leader in the Senate, has confirmed his personal allegiance to Israel and consequent intention to vote for 'disapproval', it is by no means certain that even one third of one house of Congress will choose the United States over Israel.
"What if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does defeat President Barack Obama in the American Congress? How might Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry react to a defeat more crushing and humiliating than any defeat ever suffered by any American president and secretary of state?" (12/8/15)
You can read the rest of Whitbeck's analysis at consortiumnews.com
Next month's congressional vote on Obama's Iran nuclear agreement will pit an Israel lobby-funded and -manipulated US Congress against America's president. The outcome of the vote will determine just who is the most powerful political leader in the US today, its democratically-elected president, Barack Obama, or Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu.
Read on:
Congress' Test of Allegiance: US or Israel?
by John V. Whitbeck
"Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has instructed the US Congress to reject an international agreement constraining Iran's nuclear program and to humiliate the sitting US president, thus testing where the primary allegiance of most members of Congress lies, with the US or Israel.
"The choice facing members of the US Congress in September's 'disapproval' votes could scarcely be clearer and has little to do with the merits of the international agreement reached on July 14 with respect to Iran's nuclear program...
"Since this... agreement is obviously good news for the world, the UN Security Council has unanimously approved it and only one of the UN's 193 member states, Israel, is currently opposed to it.
"The choice before members of Congress is thus a clear and simple one: Do they owe their primary allegiance and loyalty to the United States of America or to Israel?
"The great majority of members of Congress have traditionally seen less personal career risk in favoring Israeli desires over American interests than in favoring American interests over Israeli desires. There has been good empirical evidence to support this self-serving calculation. Several prominent and patriotic American politicians have lost their reelection bids as a result of the perception that they put American residents ahead of Israeli desires, and it has become a truism in American politics that 'no one has ever lost an election for being too pro-Israel'.
"However, the choice facing members of Congress has never been so clear-cut and consequential as in the imminent 'disapproval' votes on the Iran nuclear agreement.
"At first glance, it appeared that President Obama had outsmarted the Republican Congressional leadership by getting them to agree that approval of American participation in any Iran nuclear agreement would not require an inconceivable two-thirds majority of the Senate but, rather, only a post-veto one-third minority approval in one of the two houses of Congress.
"However, particularly since the influential Democratic Senator from New York Chuck Schumer, poised to become the next Democratic leader in the Senate, has confirmed his personal allegiance to Israel and consequent intention to vote for 'disapproval', it is by no means certain that even one third of one house of Congress will choose the United States over Israel.
"What if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does defeat President Barack Obama in the American Congress? How might Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry react to a defeat more crushing and humiliating than any defeat ever suffered by any American president and secretary of state?" (12/8/15)
You can read the rest of Whitbeck's analysis at consortiumnews.com
Saturday, August 15, 2015
AUS vs Aunt Poppycock
Another extract from Greg Sheridan's recently published memoir When We Were Young & Foolish: A Memoir of My Misguided Youth with Tony Abbott, Bob Carr, Malcolm Turnbull, Kevin Rudd & Other Reprobates shows just how foolish the Australian's foreign editor was and still is:
"In 1974 the AUS [Australian Union of Students] national conference passed resolutions affirming that: 'AUS does not recognise the existence of the State of Israel' and in other resolutions referred to Israel as 'the Zionist entity'." (p 124)
For the complete 1974 AUS resolution, see my 7/5/14 post Viva Australian Student Activism 1. The only other resolution was that passed in 1975. It did not contain the expression "Zionist entity."
"This signified a particular level of contempt for the state and people of Israel and was meant to be as insulting as possible." (ibid)
Boo hoo...
Insulting? Or merely accurate?
The fact is that the 'Land of Israel', of which 'Israel', the Zionist entity, is merely the abbreviated version, is a Zionist fiction with about as much substance as King Arthur's Camelot.
Just because Sheridan's exceedingly strange Aunt Poppy filled his young head with poppycock when the nipper was too young to think for himself, and just because he's too damn lazy as an adult to do a bit of homework on the subject and think the matter through, doesn't mean the rest of us have to play along, OK? (On Auntie Poppy's messing with Sheridan's mind, see my 3/8/15 post Greg Sheridan: The Making of a Gentile Zionist.)
Let's get this straight. The simple fact of the matter is that in 1948 Arab Palestine was overrun, ethnically cleansed, and occupied by fanatical, land-grabbing Zionist forces (not long arrived from a fanatical, land-grabbing Europe), who, in an act of unbridled chutzpah, rebadged their ill-gotten gains 'Israel'.
Are we, therefore, seriously expected to forget all about this crime against humanity and adopt the perpetrator's re-branding of occupied Palestine? I think not. Calling it 'the Zionist entity' is merely keeping it real.
"AUS, and the campus left generally, supported the PLO, which was then pioneering airline hijackings and other forms of terrorism against innocent civilians. AUS proclaimed 'Resistance was not terrorism'." (ibid)
Howling nonsense! Every form of terrorism to assail the Middle East in modern times was pioneered either by pre-1948 Zionist terrorists or by the armed forces of their post-1948 Zionist entity.
For the terrorism of the pre-state mob, see my 27/6/09 post Breathtaking Zionist Hypocrisy. And for the pioneering airline hijackings of the Zionist entity, consider this:
"Israel would introduce plane hijackings to the world as early as December 12, 1954 when it hijacked a Syrian airliner and forced it to land in Israel. The Israeli airforce would often seize flying civilian airliners in international skies and divert them to Israel, subject the passengers to inspection, interrogation, as well as incarceration. Indeed, Israel remains the only party in the Middle East who shot down a civilian airliner, as it did in February 21, 1973, when it downed a Libyan passenger plane, killing 108 passengers on board..." (The Persistence of the Palestinian Question: Essays on Zionism & the Palestinians, Joseph A. Massad, 2006, p 5)
Finally, a bit of clarity on these matters from the Zionist entity's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion:
"If I was an Arab leader, I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural; we have taken their country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them? Our God is not theirs. We come from Israel, it's true, but that was two thousand years ago, and what is that to them? There has been antisemitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we have come and stolen their country. Why should they accept that?" (ibid, p 5)
Why indeed?
AUS was spot-on in the 70s. Its awareness-raising campaign on Palestine, however, was lost on the closed mind of young Greg Sheridan. Incredibly, despite the wealth of information on the subject available today, he's still in thrall to Aunt Poppy's poppycock.
"In 1974 the AUS [Australian Union of Students] national conference passed resolutions affirming that: 'AUS does not recognise the existence of the State of Israel' and in other resolutions referred to Israel as 'the Zionist entity'." (p 124)
For the complete 1974 AUS resolution, see my 7/5/14 post Viva Australian Student Activism 1. The only other resolution was that passed in 1975. It did not contain the expression "Zionist entity."
"This signified a particular level of contempt for the state and people of Israel and was meant to be as insulting as possible." (ibid)
Boo hoo...
Insulting? Or merely accurate?
The fact is that the 'Land of Israel', of which 'Israel', the Zionist entity, is merely the abbreviated version, is a Zionist fiction with about as much substance as King Arthur's Camelot.
Just because Sheridan's exceedingly strange Aunt Poppy filled his young head with poppycock when the nipper was too young to think for himself, and just because he's too damn lazy as an adult to do a bit of homework on the subject and think the matter through, doesn't mean the rest of us have to play along, OK? (On Auntie Poppy's messing with Sheridan's mind, see my 3/8/15 post Greg Sheridan: The Making of a Gentile Zionist.)
Let's get this straight. The simple fact of the matter is that in 1948 Arab Palestine was overrun, ethnically cleansed, and occupied by fanatical, land-grabbing Zionist forces (not long arrived from a fanatical, land-grabbing Europe), who, in an act of unbridled chutzpah, rebadged their ill-gotten gains 'Israel'.
Are we, therefore, seriously expected to forget all about this crime against humanity and adopt the perpetrator's re-branding of occupied Palestine? I think not. Calling it 'the Zionist entity' is merely keeping it real.
"AUS, and the campus left generally, supported the PLO, which was then pioneering airline hijackings and other forms of terrorism against innocent civilians. AUS proclaimed 'Resistance was not terrorism'." (ibid)
Howling nonsense! Every form of terrorism to assail the Middle East in modern times was pioneered either by pre-1948 Zionist terrorists or by the armed forces of their post-1948 Zionist entity.
For the terrorism of the pre-state mob, see my 27/6/09 post Breathtaking Zionist Hypocrisy. And for the pioneering airline hijackings of the Zionist entity, consider this:
"Israel would introduce plane hijackings to the world as early as December 12, 1954 when it hijacked a Syrian airliner and forced it to land in Israel. The Israeli airforce would often seize flying civilian airliners in international skies and divert them to Israel, subject the passengers to inspection, interrogation, as well as incarceration. Indeed, Israel remains the only party in the Middle East who shot down a civilian airliner, as it did in February 21, 1973, when it downed a Libyan passenger plane, killing 108 passengers on board..." (The Persistence of the Palestinian Question: Essays on Zionism & the Palestinians, Joseph A. Massad, 2006, p 5)
Finally, a bit of clarity on these matters from the Zionist entity's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion:
"If I was an Arab leader, I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural; we have taken their country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them? Our God is not theirs. We come from Israel, it's true, but that was two thousand years ago, and what is that to them? There has been antisemitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we have come and stolen their country. Why should they accept that?" (ibid, p 5)
Why indeed?
AUS was spot-on in the 70s. Its awareness-raising campaign on Palestine, however, was lost on the closed mind of young Greg Sheridan. Incredibly, despite the wealth of information on the subject available today, he's still in thrall to Aunt Poppy's poppycock.
Thursday, August 13, 2015
A Warning from Tony Bliar
Remember this line from Britain's then Labour prime minister, Tony Bliar?:
"It [the intelligence service] concludes that Iraq has chemical and biological weapons, that Saddam has continued to produce them, that he has existing and active military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons, which could be activated within 45 minutes." (24/9/02)
Now here's the same Bliar, much enriched (net worth: $30m and counting) in 'retirement', writing in today's Guardian on the frontrunner in Britain's Labour Party leadership contest, Jeremy Corbyn:
"If Jeremy Corbyn becomes leader it won't be a defeat like 1983 or 2015 at the next election. It will mean rout, possibly annihilation." (Even if you hate me, please don't take Labour over the cliff edge, theguardian.com, 13/8/15)
If a warning like that, from a shameless, lying, multi-millionaire war criminal, doesn't get Corbyn across the leadership line (within 45 minutes?), I don't know what will.
"It [the intelligence service] concludes that Iraq has chemical and biological weapons, that Saddam has continued to produce them, that he has existing and active military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons, which could be activated within 45 minutes." (24/9/02)
Now here's the same Bliar, much enriched (net worth: $30m and counting) in 'retirement', writing in today's Guardian on the frontrunner in Britain's Labour Party leadership contest, Jeremy Corbyn:
"If Jeremy Corbyn becomes leader it won't be a defeat like 1983 or 2015 at the next election. It will mean rout, possibly annihilation." (Even if you hate me, please don't take Labour over the cliff edge, theguardian.com, 13/8/15)
If a warning like that, from a shameless, lying, multi-millionaire war criminal, doesn't get Corbyn across the leadership line (within 45 minutes?), I don't know what will.
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
A (Zionist) Night on the (Palestinian) Town
When fun-loving young Zionists go out on the (Palestinian) town, you can be sure of one thing - they are always dressed to kill.
This year, kippot and molotov cocktails are all the rage:
"Take a good look at the photographs of the suspects in the new Jewish underground being taken into custody. Look at them grinning with their unruly, never-shaven beards and payot flowing from under the soup-bowl kippot. Seriously, they're rock stars. They don't give a damn what anyone thinks and they'll have a whale of a time in prison, emerging even bigger heroes. Once you've slipped the earthly bonds of mortal judgment, nothing can touch you. They (allegedly) burned mosques and churches and a home with a sleeping family inside, killing an 18-month-old baby boy, and now just look at them, blissfully happy. I bet you saw those photographs and felt a burning shame: how could Jews do such a thing? Don't they realize the harm they are doing all of us? The shanda, the hillul Hashem, desecration of God's name? This is what true Jews look like - Jews who don't care what you or anyone else thinks because they're true Jews exercising Jewish sovereignty in the Jewish homeland. They're keeping it real." (True Judaism will kill us if we don't reject it in time, Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz, 6/8/15)
In 1948, however, the old Jewish underground wouldn't be seen dead in kippot and molotov cocktails. Back then, it was helmets and machetes:
"The [Irgun] gang was wearing country uniform, with helmets. All of them were young, some even adolescents, men and women, armed to the teeth: revolvers, machine-guns, hand grenades, and also large cutlasses in their hands, most of them still blood-stained. A beautiful young girl, with criminal eyes, showed me hers still dripping with blood; she displayed it like a trophy. This was the 'cleaning up' team, that was obviously performing its task very conscientiously." (Jacques de Reynier, Head of the delegation in Palestine of the International Red Cross in Palestine in 1948. See my 9/4/12 post Zionism Red in Tooth & Claw)
This year, kippot and molotov cocktails are all the rage:
"Take a good look at the photographs of the suspects in the new Jewish underground being taken into custody. Look at them grinning with their unruly, never-shaven beards and payot flowing from under the soup-bowl kippot. Seriously, they're rock stars. They don't give a damn what anyone thinks and they'll have a whale of a time in prison, emerging even bigger heroes. Once you've slipped the earthly bonds of mortal judgment, nothing can touch you. They (allegedly) burned mosques and churches and a home with a sleeping family inside, killing an 18-month-old baby boy, and now just look at them, blissfully happy. I bet you saw those photographs and felt a burning shame: how could Jews do such a thing? Don't they realize the harm they are doing all of us? The shanda, the hillul Hashem, desecration of God's name? This is what true Jews look like - Jews who don't care what you or anyone else thinks because they're true Jews exercising Jewish sovereignty in the Jewish homeland. They're keeping it real." (True Judaism will kill us if we don't reject it in time, Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz, 6/8/15)
In 1948, however, the old Jewish underground wouldn't be seen dead in kippot and molotov cocktails. Back then, it was helmets and machetes:
"The [Irgun] gang was wearing country uniform, with helmets. All of them were young, some even adolescents, men and women, armed to the teeth: revolvers, machine-guns, hand grenades, and also large cutlasses in their hands, most of them still blood-stained. A beautiful young girl, with criminal eyes, showed me hers still dripping with blood; she displayed it like a trophy. This was the 'cleaning up' team, that was obviously performing its task very conscientiously." (Jacques de Reynier, Head of the delegation in Palestine of the International Red Cross in Palestine in 1948. See my 9/4/12 post Zionism Red in Tooth & Claw)
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Obama: No More Wars for Israel
The Iraq War theses of James Petras (The Power of Israel in the United States, 2006), John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt (The Israel Lobby & US Foreign Policy, 2007), and Stephen Sniegoski (The Transparent Cabal, 2008) have just been vindicated by Barack Obama. (My clarifications in brackets):
"Between now and the congressional vote in September, you're going to hear a lot of arguments against this deal, backed by tens of millions of dollars in advertising. [Hello, Israel Lobby!] And if the rhetoric in these ads, and the accompanying commentary, sounds familiar, it should - for many of the same people who argued for the war in Iraq are now making the case against the Iran nuclear deal. [Hello, Ziocons!] Now, when I ran for President, 8 years ago as a candidate who had opposed the decision to go to war in Iraq, I said that America didn't just have to end that war - we had to end the mindset that got us there in the first place. [Hello, Ziocons!] It was a mindset characterized by a preference for military action over diplomacy; a mindset that put a premium on unilateral US action over the painstaking work of building international consensus; a mindset that exaggerated threats beyond what the intelligence supported." (Remarks by the President on the Iran Nuclear Deal, American University, Washington, DC, 5/8/15)
"Between now and the congressional vote in September, you're going to hear a lot of arguments against this deal, backed by tens of millions of dollars in advertising. [Hello, Israel Lobby!] And if the rhetoric in these ads, and the accompanying commentary, sounds familiar, it should - for many of the same people who argued for the war in Iraq are now making the case against the Iran nuclear deal. [Hello, Ziocons!] Now, when I ran for President, 8 years ago as a candidate who had opposed the decision to go to war in Iraq, I said that America didn't just have to end that war - we had to end the mindset that got us there in the first place. [Hello, Ziocons!] It was a mindset characterized by a preference for military action over diplomacy; a mindset that put a premium on unilateral US action over the painstaking work of building international consensus; a mindset that exaggerated threats beyond what the intelligence supported." (Remarks by the President on the Iran Nuclear Deal, American University, Washington, DC, 5/8/15)
Monday, August 10, 2015
USrael: The Divorce?
"I recognize that Prime Minister Netanyahu disagrees - disagrees strongly. I do not doubt his sincerity. But I believe he is wrong. I believe the facts support this deal. I believe they are in America's interest and Israel's interest. And as President of the United States, it would be an abrogation of my constitutional duty to act against my best judgment simply because it causes temporary friction with a dear friend and ally. I do not believe that would be the right thing to do for the United States. I do not believe it would be the right thing to do for Israel." (Remarks by the President on the Iran Nuclear Deal, American University, Washington, DC, 5/8/15)
Friday, August 7, 2015
Another Standout Australian Performance at the UN
"Australia was one of only 2 countries out of 54 nations to vote against a motion singling out Israel at the UN Economic and Social council (ECOSOC) late last month. The text of the motion accused Israel of, among other things, 'destruction of homes and properties, economic institutions and agricultural lands and orchards in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, as well as in the occupied Syrian Golan', the 'exploitation of natural resources' and of 'the dumping of all kinds of waste materials in the Occupied Palestinian territory... and in the occupied Syrian Golan'." (Australia stands up for Israel at the UN, The Australian Jewish News, 7/8/15)
The only other country to vote against the motion was the United States.
"Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop told The AJN Australia voted against the resolution 'because it was unbalanced. It unfairly singled out Israel for criticism and made no mention of Hamas' role in perpetuating the conflict which has done so much to impoverish the Palestinian people', she said."
Yes, Jools, there must be balance!
Hamas simply cannot be allowed to get away with the pretence that it isn't equally involved in the destruction of homes and properties, economic institutions and agricultural lands and orchards in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. Not to mention the dumping of waste materials in the West Bank and the Golan Heights... And in blockading and starving the Gaza Strip... And in shelling and bombing the bejesus out of it every year or so... And in...
The only other country to vote against the motion was the United States.
"Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop told The AJN Australia voted against the resolution 'because it was unbalanced. It unfairly singled out Israel for criticism and made no mention of Hamas' role in perpetuating the conflict which has done so much to impoverish the Palestinian people', she said."
Yes, Jools, there must be balance!
Hamas simply cannot be allowed to get away with the pretence that it isn't equally involved in the destruction of homes and properties, economic institutions and agricultural lands and orchards in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. Not to mention the dumping of waste materials in the West Bank and the Golan Heights... And in blockading and starving the Gaza Strip... And in shelling and bombing the bejesus out of it every year or so... And in...
Thursday, August 6, 2015
Betts on Buzi's 'Refugee Nation'
Welcome to OMFG territory:
"Two weeks ago real estate millionaire Jason Buzi launched his idea for a 'Refugee Nation' in the global media. The basic premise was not new: to buy an underpopulated area of land somewhere in the world and turn it into a territory for the world's refugees to begin a new life. It combines the historic precedent of the origins of Buzi's native Israel with..." (Is creating a new nation for the world's refugees a good idea? Alexander Betts, guardian.com, 4/8/15)
Stop right there. As soon as the 'I' word pops up you know you don't really need to read further.
After all, this rich bozo comes from a nation which was born of a process of turning an indigenous population into refugees (in 1948), and which to this day refuses their return simply because it wants to be exclusively Jewish. The result: they are forced to remain warehoused in perpetuity in their various countries of refuge.
And now here we have a representative of that same refugee-producing and refugee-perpetuating nation proposing that today's refugees, from wherever they come, forget about returning to their homelands and be warehoused somewhere, anywhere, so long as it's out of sight and out of mind.
The mind fairly boggles at the chutzpah of it all. But, hey, there's worse:
The author of the piece, Alexander Betts, a professor of refugee and forced migration studies and director of Oxford's Refugee Studies Centre, makes absolutely no reference in his piece to the now 7m plus warehoused Palestinian refugees.
Gobsmacking!
"Two weeks ago real estate millionaire Jason Buzi launched his idea for a 'Refugee Nation' in the global media. The basic premise was not new: to buy an underpopulated area of land somewhere in the world and turn it into a territory for the world's refugees to begin a new life. It combines the historic precedent of the origins of Buzi's native Israel with..." (Is creating a new nation for the world's refugees a good idea? Alexander Betts, guardian.com, 4/8/15)
Stop right there. As soon as the 'I' word pops up you know you don't really need to read further.
After all, this rich bozo comes from a nation which was born of a process of turning an indigenous population into refugees (in 1948), and which to this day refuses their return simply because it wants to be exclusively Jewish. The result: they are forced to remain warehoused in perpetuity in their various countries of refuge.
And now here we have a representative of that same refugee-producing and refugee-perpetuating nation proposing that today's refugees, from wherever they come, forget about returning to their homelands and be warehoused somewhere, anywhere, so long as it's out of sight and out of mind.
The mind fairly boggles at the chutzpah of it all. But, hey, there's worse:
The author of the piece, Alexander Betts, a professor of refugee and forced migration studies and director of Oxford's Refugee Studies Centre, makes absolutely no reference in his piece to the now 7m plus warehoused Palestinian refugees.
Gobsmacking!
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Lobbywhipped
Next year will be the 10th anniversary of the publication of one of the most important works ever written on American foreign policy, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt's The Israel Lobby & US Foreign Policy.
At the time, these two fearless, truth-telling American political scientists were accused of "gross exaggeration of the power of the 'lobby'," and of reviving "elements of classic anti-Jewish conspiracy theories... [namely] that Jews have excessive, overarching power..." (An anti-Jewish screed in scholarly guise, adl.org, 24/3/06)
In the meantime, the hold of the Israel lobby over Congress has only grown, with gobsmacking results like this:
"The American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF), the educational wing of hardline right-wing pro-Israel lobbying organization the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), is taking all but 3 freshmen US lawmakers on a tour of Israel, in hopes of turning them against the Iran nuclear deal... Congress has 60 days to review the Iran deal. AIEF/AIPAC is hoping to persuade US congresspeople to undermine and vote against the deal, although Obama has vowed to veto any attempt by the legislature to do so. Congress would need a two-thirds majority in order to override the president's veto." (AIPAC taking all but 3 freshmen Congresspeople to Israel in effort to sabotage Iran deal, Ben Norton, mondoweiss.net, 3/8/15)
So 57 out of 60 of recently elected US legislators simply haven't got what it takes to say no when the Israel lobby snaps its fingers.
God help America.
At the time, these two fearless, truth-telling American political scientists were accused of "gross exaggeration of the power of the 'lobby'," and of reviving "elements of classic anti-Jewish conspiracy theories... [namely] that Jews have excessive, overarching power..." (An anti-Jewish screed in scholarly guise, adl.org, 24/3/06)
In the meantime, the hold of the Israel lobby over Congress has only grown, with gobsmacking results like this:
"The American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF), the educational wing of hardline right-wing pro-Israel lobbying organization the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), is taking all but 3 freshmen US lawmakers on a tour of Israel, in hopes of turning them against the Iran nuclear deal... Congress has 60 days to review the Iran deal. AIEF/AIPAC is hoping to persuade US congresspeople to undermine and vote against the deal, although Obama has vowed to veto any attempt by the legislature to do so. Congress would need a two-thirds majority in order to override the president's veto." (AIPAC taking all but 3 freshmen Congresspeople to Israel in effort to sabotage Iran deal, Ben Norton, mondoweiss.net, 3/8/15)
So 57 out of 60 of recently elected US legislators simply haven't got what it takes to say no when the Israel lobby snaps its fingers.
God help America.
Monday, August 3, 2015
Greg Sheridan: The Making of a Gentile Zionist
I've always been interested in what goes into the making of a Zionist, whether gentile or Jewish. As with any other ideology, whether political or religious, childhood influences seem to be crucial.
Take, for example, the case of Greg Sheridan, Australia's most influential foreign affairs commentator, or so Murdoch's Australian, of which he is the foreign editor, touts him. Did Aunt Poppy hard-wire him in his early childhood?:
"The biggest influence on Dad's life was his Auntie Poppy... My mother firmly believed that Auntie Poppy was Dad's real mother. She told me many times after his death that Dad had believed that too... It is impossible to establish whether this is true or not. Auntie Poppy never married. The only man she had ever been known to keep company with, before Dad was born, was Jewish, so perhaps I have Jewish ancestry on my father's side. In those far off days, how would a Catholic-Jewish union have worked? Auntie Poppy's family could cope with an irregular child... but they could never have accepted Auntie Poppy leaving the Church, or bringing up a child other than as a Catholic. And what of the man's family? My family was always pro-Jewish and pro-Israel. Dad often told me that if Christ was the saviour, the Catholic religion was true, and if he wasn't the saviour, then the Jewish religion was true... Auntie Poppy always told me I must never forget that the Jews were God's chosen people... Dad and Auntie Poppy were always pro-Jewish and pro-Israel." (When We Were Young & Foolish: A Memoir of My Misguided Youth with Tony Abbott, Bob Carr, Malcolm Turnbull, Kevin Rudd & Other Reprobates, 2015, pp 21-22)
Has Sheridan ever struggled with such childhood/childish certainties?
What, I wonder, would he make of 1 Corinthians 13:11?:
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
Take, for example, the case of Greg Sheridan, Australia's most influential foreign affairs commentator, or so Murdoch's Australian, of which he is the foreign editor, touts him. Did Aunt Poppy hard-wire him in his early childhood?:
"The biggest influence on Dad's life was his Auntie Poppy... My mother firmly believed that Auntie Poppy was Dad's real mother. She told me many times after his death that Dad had believed that too... It is impossible to establish whether this is true or not. Auntie Poppy never married. The only man she had ever been known to keep company with, before Dad was born, was Jewish, so perhaps I have Jewish ancestry on my father's side. In those far off days, how would a Catholic-Jewish union have worked? Auntie Poppy's family could cope with an irregular child... but they could never have accepted Auntie Poppy leaving the Church, or bringing up a child other than as a Catholic. And what of the man's family? My family was always pro-Jewish and pro-Israel. Dad often told me that if Christ was the saviour, the Catholic religion was true, and if he wasn't the saviour, then the Jewish religion was true... Auntie Poppy always told me I must never forget that the Jews were God's chosen people... Dad and Auntie Poppy were always pro-Jewish and pro-Israel." (When We Were Young & Foolish: A Memoir of My Misguided Youth with Tony Abbott, Bob Carr, Malcolm Turnbull, Kevin Rudd & Other Reprobates, 2015, pp 21-22)
Has Sheridan ever struggled with such childhood/childish certainties?
What, I wonder, would he make of 1 Corinthians 13:11?:
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
Saturday, August 1, 2015
Julie Bishop: From Zero to Hero in Just 4 Years
Thus spake Tone's Suppository of all Wisdom, Greg Sheridan, in today's Australian:
"This is a big call. But surely Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has never in her political career, indeed in her life, had a finer public moment than in the short, crisp, devastating speech she made to the UN Security Council rebuking Moscow. The rebuke was delivered for Russia's veto against a resolution to establish an independent tribunal to prosecute those responsible for bringing down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine... With no disrespect to our fine professional diplomats [hers] does not sound like a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade speech." (Julie Bishop's devastating denunciation of Russia over its MH17 veto was her finest hour)
High praise indeed. Yet it seems only yesterday that Greg was writing:
"Julie Bishop... has produced not a single sentence of substance or originality while in the portfolio." (Bishop's errors of judgment compound the Coalition's woes, The Australian, 14/2/11)
Ouch!
So how did Jules do it? How did she manage to go from prose zero to hero in just 4 years? Greg only knows!
But it's not his uncommon praise for she who can't quite see what international law has to do with Israeli colonisation of the West Bank that interests me, it's his concluding aside on Daniel Patrick Moynihan:
"Surely the most magnificent speech ever delivered at the UN came from Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He was the US ambassador to the UN in 1975, when the General Assembly passed a resolution saying that Zionism equated to racism. Moynihan began his magnificent and justly celebrated address with these words: 'The United States rises to declare before the General Assembly of the United nations, and before the world, that it does not acknowledge, it will not abide by, it will never acquiesce in this infamous act.' This fine speech contributed to the ultimate repeal of that notorious resolution. In the body of the speech, informed throughout by a white flame of moral outrage, Moynihan drew the implications of what the resolution meant for the UN: 'The abomination of anti-Semitism has been given the appearance of international sanction. The General Assembly today grants symbolic amnesty - and more - to the murderers of the six million European Jews. Evil enough in itself, but more ominous by far is the realisation that now presses upon us - the realisation that if there were no General Assembly, this could never have happened.' There is a faint echo of this in Bishop's call to the Security Council to persist in prosecuting the case of the killers of MH17 even in the face of Moscow's veto. Bishop's speech is not quite in the Moynihan class, but it is as good, and as important, a speech as any Australian has delivered at the UN for a very long time."
Er... I hate to break it to you, Greg, but there are two mega problems here.
The first is that Zionism is actually worse than racism - it's apartheid.
And the second is that Moynihan didn't write that silly speech. To see who did, go to my 22/4/14 post The Grooming of Gareth Evans & Pat Moynihan.
Warning: You can expect a few more posts on Sheridan this month, inspired by his just-released autobiography, When We Were Young & Foolish.
"This is a big call. But surely Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has never in her political career, indeed in her life, had a finer public moment than in the short, crisp, devastating speech she made to the UN Security Council rebuking Moscow. The rebuke was delivered for Russia's veto against a resolution to establish an independent tribunal to prosecute those responsible for bringing down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine... With no disrespect to our fine professional diplomats [hers] does not sound like a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade speech." (Julie Bishop's devastating denunciation of Russia over its MH17 veto was her finest hour)
High praise indeed. Yet it seems only yesterday that Greg was writing:
"Julie Bishop... has produced not a single sentence of substance or originality while in the portfolio." (Bishop's errors of judgment compound the Coalition's woes, The Australian, 14/2/11)
Ouch!
So how did Jules do it? How did she manage to go from prose zero to hero in just 4 years? Greg only knows!
But it's not his uncommon praise for she who can't quite see what international law has to do with Israeli colonisation of the West Bank that interests me, it's his concluding aside on Daniel Patrick Moynihan:
"Surely the most magnificent speech ever delivered at the UN came from Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He was the US ambassador to the UN in 1975, when the General Assembly passed a resolution saying that Zionism equated to racism. Moynihan began his magnificent and justly celebrated address with these words: 'The United States rises to declare before the General Assembly of the United nations, and before the world, that it does not acknowledge, it will not abide by, it will never acquiesce in this infamous act.' This fine speech contributed to the ultimate repeal of that notorious resolution. In the body of the speech, informed throughout by a white flame of moral outrage, Moynihan drew the implications of what the resolution meant for the UN: 'The abomination of anti-Semitism has been given the appearance of international sanction. The General Assembly today grants symbolic amnesty - and more - to the murderers of the six million European Jews. Evil enough in itself, but more ominous by far is the realisation that now presses upon us - the realisation that if there were no General Assembly, this could never have happened.' There is a faint echo of this in Bishop's call to the Security Council to persist in prosecuting the case of the killers of MH17 even in the face of Moscow's veto. Bishop's speech is not quite in the Moynihan class, but it is as good, and as important, a speech as any Australian has delivered at the UN for a very long time."
Er... I hate to break it to you, Greg, but there are two mega problems here.
The first is that Zionism is actually worse than racism - it's apartheid.
And the second is that Moynihan didn't write that silly speech. To see who did, go to my 22/4/14 post The Grooming of Gareth Evans & Pat Moynihan.
Warning: You can expect a few more posts on Sheridan this month, inspired by his just-released autobiography, When We Were Young & Foolish.
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